Ustream Blogs

In case you missed the NAB Show…

This year’s annual NAB Show, appropriately themed around the metamorphosis of broadcast media, centered heavily on social media and consumer engagement. This year, I had the pleasure of hosting an NAB Info Session about the “Reinvention of Live Media,” where I got a chance to update the audience about what we’ve got in the hopper at Ustream.

We’re in the middle of a major shift in consumer habits, as social media has created the expectation of instant gratification and real-time connectivity. All of us in the broadcasting space need to adapt and be nimble, in order to stay relevant and innovative. I’m incredibly proud of the work we’ve done over the years to create such a robust, yet widely adopted platform to connect our global community to the things they care about. The Ustream Cloud Platform fuses live content with social media, providing the most engaging shared experiences for both broadcasters and viewers. Check out how “fans are rushing the stage,” now that Ustream has provided a means to bridge the gap between the physical and virtual live experience

We also put together a unique panel of our customers to chat about their use-cases, which I feel really helped to connect the dots between live video streaming and consumer engagement. The industries ran the gamut — education (Arizona State University), media (POPSugar), religion (Saint Monica Catholic Church), non-profit (explore.org), and sports (Premium Sports) — but the goals for each one all centered around connectivity and audience engagement. Watch it here:

San Francisco Bay Area locals may recognize Lisa Kim in the above video stream, who was moderating the customer panel. She spent many years anchoring and reporting, most recently at NBC 11. Lisa spent some time with us at the NAB Show, as we created an all-day live show last Tuesday to give viewers a flavor of the showroom floor. From this, we captured a variety of content from companies and attendees, including product demos and interviews. Click the “Ustream Livepack” tab and choose from a variety of videos from the day:

I also spent some time walking the floor throughout the course of the week, and I couldn’t help but notice several consistent topics of conversation: 4K, second screen monetization, and broadcast distribution were the most popular thought starters. While Ustream doesn’t necessarily play directly in these areas, it’s certainly something we, as a company, need to innovate towards. For example, TVs will continue to get smarter and sharper, and I see a future where viewers are seamlessly watching Ustream content in whichever quality will eventually overtake 4K.

As with any major conference, there are a number of events off the showroom floor. We sponsored the Technology Awards Luncheon, where the National Association of Broadcasters gave recognition to some of the most innovative people in the industry. NASA Administrator Charles Boldin gave the keynote speech and talked about some of their upcoming missions, including plans to capture an asteroid, bring it closer to earth, and launch a manned ship to it. Hear him talk more about this incredible mission (beamed in via satellite in true NASA fashion):

Over the years, we’ve done some incredible things with NASA, including live video streaming their ‘Curiosity’ rover landing on Mars for over 3 million captivated viewers last year. Even more recently, Ustream enabled more than 7.5 million viewers to watch the Russian meteor fly-by live through NASA’s stream. You no longer have to be an astronaut to see the surface of Mars — and soon enough, you’ll be seeing an asteroid-capture!

We’ve got much more to come, but in the meantime, you can read more about our latest news in our Press Box: www.ustream.tv/press